The Dragon and The Peacock
by LionShark
Summary: Follow the adventures of Meiying and The Rising Fighting Dragons as they navigate through the shenanigans brought about by friends, foreigners, and possibly even feelings (highly unwanted as they might be). A story told from multiple perspectives
1. Chapter 1

A/N: _Watched this movie again recently. Fell in love with it again. Always took an interest to all of the supporting characters and loved the idea of trying to flesh them out some more. This is my attempt at doing so. Please leave a comment of what you think and I hope y'all would be interested to see me continue. Enjoy!_

* * *

I wake up to the piercing rays of sun bleeding through the cracks in my curtains. I was hoping to sleep in a little today, especially after yesterday's grueling overtime lesson with my violin tutor that went hours past dusk into that time of night when I had no choice but to reluctantly call my father to pick me up, when I was then treated to a long car ride full of lectures about "independence" and how I'm "too old to be calling Daddy to be your chauffeur". I wanted so badly to point out to him that it was in fact because of Mom's insistence that, as an older girl now, I start be more cautious of strangers at night that prompted me to ask for a ride, but the hours of saying "Yes sir. You are right. I will practice the piece more" had left my voice too tired for the night.

I slowly rose out of bed, and quietly slipped into some fresh clothes before going downstairs to start some breakfast for the family. I looked out the window to see the clear skies (a rare occurrence in Beijing nowadays), and children and elderly alike starting to pour out into the local parks. As I finished setting the table and food, I decided that perhaps I would practice outside today to take advantage of the beautiful day. Perhaps I would even draw some inspiration from nature that could show me how to play those stupid pauses my tutor never seems to let up on...

Outside, the sun was shining, the wind was lightly blowing, making the air feel crisp and cool (all of which are also rare occurrences in Beijing). I put on some of my favorite violin symphonies from Bach, and tried to get myself into the zone. Before I could immerse myself into the music, I noticed a young boy confidently strutting onto the basketball courts. He was definitely a new face, and though I knew it was rude, I couldn't help but stare at his fascinating hairstyle and foreign behavior. In a sense, it was refreshing to see somebody who looked and acted different from the familiar faces that I had gotten to know around the park. He seemed to take notice of me too, shooting casual glances at my way as he and the other foreign boy that had moved here a few months prior began to challenge the local kids basketball group.

I'm not sure if perhaps my constant glances were distracting, or if perhaps diligent technique and practice are not as valued in American culture, but I couldn't help but laugh as the new kid confidently threw a shot from the three point line that sailed so high into the air, even my violin tutor would've been proud of the pause before the ball finally hit on the ground several feet past the bucket.

The game continued, and though the American kids lost (the new kid also losing a second time in ping pong to the park's resident ping pong master in a very amusing display), I liked the new kid's never ending confidence and will to keep playing. In China, it was common to see my peers shying away from anything they were worried they couldn't excel at. Too often, it was either you had to be the best, or you had to try a different hobby for fear of being laughed at or worse, criticized.

As I tried to get back to my practice session, I noticed the new kid slowly get up and approach me. I pretended to look down, and began to furiously try to recall my English lessons from school.

He spoke a few words to me attempting to break the ice, and before I could reply back, he continued

" _Oh… forgot. No English_ ".

And yet again before I could attempt to correct him, he continued with what I can only assume was meant to be a proper greeting in Chinese. I giggled, feeling bad for doing so, but also impressed that he was so brave in trying to speak to me in a language he must only have had a few minutes to practice at most.

Still though, I couldn't help but throw a quick jab at him: "What kind of greeting was that?"

" _Oh… you speak English_?"

I nodded, and then began to listen as he went on to talk a bit more before asking me: "What are you listening to?"

"Bach."

" _Oh… Bach. Yeah they're cool I've heard of them before_ "

I felt confused for a moment as I was pretty sure I remembered "them" being a plural object for a noun, but he quickly moved on:

" _Hey have you ever heard of this_?"

And slowly a beat started playing from the cellphone that he had pulled out. Not wanting to be rude, I nodded my head along, though admittedly the foreign music did have a catchy hook to it.

The boy started dancing much to my amusement, but as the other park residents began to stare, I quickly changed the subject:

"Can I touch your hair?"

Of all of the thoughts that raced through my head in the past minute, I'm not sure why that's what I settled upon, but nevertheless the boy consented after some initial surprise.

The sun was shining, the wind was lightly blowing, and my decision to practice outside was starting to feel like a good one. How I wished it had stayed that way…

* * *

I awoke to the unpleasant sound of my cellphone blasting away on my bed stand next to my face. It was only 8:15 in the morning, approximately 2 hours too early to be rudely woken up on a Sunday, which was resting day from the soreness that practice always left me with after a week of relentless training.

I squinted my eyes at the caller ID to see who was responsible for committing this crime against my personal humanity: _Zhuang_

I exhaled a deep sigh and let the phone ring a few more times in petty revenge before answering:

"Hello?"

" _Yooooo Liang! Glad you're up!"_

"Yeah I can't say I share the same sentiment…"

" _Don't be such a party pooper man. Look out the window! Do you see what a clear day it is? We gotta hit the park today man for sure!"_

"What's there to do at the park? Can't we just like meet up later after lunch to play cards or something"

" _What are you 80? You sound like my Grandpa: 'Oh I'm going to call up some friends to play mahjong and drink tea and talk about the cultural revolution'."_

I silently laugh at Zhuang's impression of his Grandpa. He was always really good at mocking his elders much to the sharp dismay of his parents and other adults.

" _Geez louise man you're 15! You should be feeling that youthful energy compelling you to go outside where you belong"_

"Now who's the one who sounds 80…"

" _Whatever dude. Just get dressed and meet me at the park at 9. I'm calling Cheng too."_

"You know there's no way he's gonna spend his Sunday at the park unless it's to practice our Kung Fu some more"

" _Leave that part to me. See ya there man. Don't be late!"_

And with that, the call abruptly ended. I hold back a sigh of frustration as I check the time on my phone. 8:19. Looks like I would only have 41 minutes left to enjoy my Sunday.


	2. Chapter 2

I suppose the biggest advantage of getting up early is that I get to sneak out of the house before anybody else in the family's up. Neither of my parents nor my younger brother Chang liked to raise out of bed on the weekends before 10 (It's almost comically clear where I got my aversion for mornings from). Not that I didn't absolutely revel in seeing my family to start off the day, but I knew that if I had come downstairs to the rest of my family already awake, I would no doubt get lectured by my mother who would stop me from ditching the house to go outside since that clearly meant I was always up to no good. I would probably then be assigned to babysit my brother for the rest of the morning, which was definitely not how I wanted to spend my only day off of school and practice. Thankfully, today was just a quick brush of my teeth, comb of my hair, and bite of some bread before I was out of the door by 8:40.

The park was only a 15 minute walk away from my place, so I got to take my leisurely time, greeting each of my elderly neighbors as they all started to commence their morning dance exercises (come to think of it, Zhuang was far more like the old man given his propensity for getting up at the crack of dawn).

Already, the streets of Beijing were bustling with people walking to and fro: adults carrying produce from the local market, and children laughing alongside friends as they skipped along to the same park I was headed towards. Though I gave Zhuang a hard time over it, I was secretly glad that he pushed me to spend today outside: being stuck between classrooms, the dojo, and home all the time made me lose appreciation for the outdoors, and the weather was actually feeling fantastic today too.

I got to the park at 8:58, and unsurprisingly found myself the only person there. Zhuang had a bad habit of running behind all the time (ironic considering he always pushed others to be punctual), and no doubt convincing Cheng to go to the park was probably proving to be a tough task.

As if on cue though, I turn around to find my friends running towards the tree I was currently leaning against (well Zhuang was running while Cheng casually strolled over, probably thinking about how he was going to get out of this so he could go home and practice).

" _Hey Liang! Sorry we're late. This bozo refused to run over here with me cause he felt like being stubborn today."_

" _It's not stubbornness. I was conserving my energy like how Master was teaching us the other day."_

" _Yeah, yeah. I heard you the first time, teacher's pet. Still doesn't mean you aren't stubborn also."_

I laughed as Cheng bore a distasteful face at being unable to counter Zhuang's last remark, and quickly greeted them both.

" _So anyways, I brought my soccer ball today and I was thinking we could play 3 on 3 vs the soccer club kids that like to practice here on the weekends."_

Cheng and I nodded our heads in agreement.

" _Here, give me the ball and I'll go ask them. You guys stay here for a sec."_

'Always the boss' I thought to myself, but nevertheless Zhuang handed him the soccer ball and watched as Cheng slowly headed over to the soccer club practicing some meters away on the other side of the park. I turned to Zhuang and began to make conversation:

"So tell me, how did you manage to convince Bruce Lee over there to spend his training day playing soccer with us in the park?"

" _Actually, it was pretty easy. All I said was 'hey, me and Liang are going to the park today, you wanna come?' and he pretty much agreed instantly"_

"No way. Did you say we were gonna practice our Kung Fu here?" I laughed

" _Nah. I think he secretly wanted to come here today by himself anyways."_ Zhuang turned his head to me and gave me a wry smirk. I knew that look meant he was either up to something or prompting me to ask for more, but I played along, partly because I was secretly curious anyways.

"What do you mean?"

" _Look who also decided that today was too good a day to pass being outside"_ Zhuang cocked his head over to the other side of the park, where I turned my head and scanned the area before I narrowed in on the benches and understood. An equally devious smirk also spread across my own face.

 _Mei Ying_.

She must've decided to practice outside today, which was unsurprising given the nice weather and how much she liked coming to this park anyways. No doubt Cheng knew her well enough to come to the same conclusion.

" _So when do you think that knucklehead is gonna finally grow a pair and ask her out"_

"I bet you wouldn't dare say that to his face" I laughed as Zhuang lifted his hands up in acknowledgment of being called out.

" _Hey man, I'm just saying, everybody totally knows it. He never lets any other guy approach her, and whenever the gang talks about cute girls, he'll get a deep scowl on his face when one of us mentions Mei Ying."_

It was true. Cheng was definitely into this girl, and I thought of confronting him a few times about when he was going to admit his feelings (and then proceed to tease him about it as an obligation of being his best friend), but I knew him well enough to know that he would laugh it off and then say something like 'Shut up Liang. You know it's not like that. Besides, I don't see you with any girls. Closest thing you got to that is Zhuang's sister'.

Thankfully, before that train of thought started to get even weirder, I heard Zhuang pipe up beside me:

" _Yo, who's that kid over there? I've never seen him before"_

I turned my head to the basketball courts and quickly saw who Zhuang was talking about. An African kid about our age was sitting alongside the other foreign kid that had moved to our school a few months prior. From the looks on their faces, they were probably dejected from losing a basketball match to the elementary school kids that liked to play here.

"Must be a foreigner. Probably an American that moved here recently."

Zhuang shrugged his shoulders and quickly lost interest, but at that moment, the new kid began to approach Mei Ying, and start a conversation with her.

I don't know what it was, but the sight left a sour taste in my mouth. Perhaps it was seeing a complete outsider strutting in and trying to make the moves on my best friend's girl like he had any right, or just the fact that he clearly wasn't making an effort to try to learn our country's language (given how Mei Ying looked confused at every other sentence he was saying).

" _Yo. You guys ready to play?"_ Cheng had come back and hadn't yet noticed the situation that was unfolding on the other side of the park.

The smile that formed on my face would've put all of Zhuang's mischievous ones to shame, and before Zhuang could agree and head over to the soccer fields, I quickly pulled Cheng aside and gestured to the wooden benches.

"Hey Cheng. Isn't that Mei Ying over there? What's she doing?" Truthfully, I was probably no good at playing dumb, especially compared to Zhuang and his trickster ways, but thankfully, my poor acting skills were good enough for now.

Cheng turned his head and immediately frowned.

" _Yeah. She's supposed to be practicing right now. Her audition for the Beijing Academy of Music is in less than a month…"_

"What's she doing talking to that strange foreign kid over there? Doesn't look like practicing to me."

And just like that, it became like shooting fish in a barrel. To be honest, my mother is probably right: I probably am always up to no good. But hey; it's worth it if it'll finally get my oblivious idiot of a best friend to realize his feelings.


	3. Chapter 3

I knew trouble was brewing when I saw that look on his face. The look he gets whenever any of our male classmates would try to sit with me at lunch; whenever his parents, out of humility, tried to downplay his accomplishments at Master Li's dojo at our joint family dinners.

The look wasn't always a signal for trouble: it actually used to be a sign of protection. When Cheng and I were little, I had a bad run in with some older elementary school bullies, who had decided that I was invading their territory by playing on the swings at the local park. Before the tears could even finish running down my face, I remember Cheng, just 6 years old at the time, glaring down and yelling at my assailants to leave me alone as he shielded me with his own body. The bullies looked between themselves and reluctantly obeyed; even at a young age, Cheng had a dominating presence that was hard to stand against. As he walked me home that night, hand fiercely clasped against one of my own as I struggled to wipe my face clean with the other, I had known at that moment that our lives would henceforth be deeply intertwined. Over time though, the look had grown to become more sour. Suddenly, it was not a face that was reserved only for those who upset or threatened me, but rather anybody whom Cheng deemed 'unworthy' to speak to me. To be honest, I can't tell anymore if he continues to hover over me for my own sake or for his: no doubt that claiming 'personal bodyguard' to me only inflates his pride as a martial arts master.

Today, the look was one of the worst I had seen in quite some time. Nevertheless, I hoped for the best, and tried to put on a smile as Cheng turned away from the new kid and stared straight into my eyes.

" _Your Dad said you were supposed to be out here practicing."_

My smile fell a bit. Since when did my father go behind my back to give details of my daily activities to Cheng? I knew he trusted Cheng a lot, but it's not like he was ACTUALLY my bodyguard.

"I am practicing" I replied, trying hard to remain calm.

" _Whatever it was you were doing just now, you clearly didn't even need these!"_ Cheng quickly slapped my music sheets out of my hand.

My face fell and I could no longer contain my frustration.

"What are you doing!" I asked as I furiously stood to match eye level with him. Honestly, even an older brother would have no right behaving like this to me right now.

"I don't need you to manage my life. Just mind your own business!"

Cheng continued to glare at me, refusing to back down.

" _If your Dad knew, he'd be furious right now!"_ And there he went again. Using his excuse that he was acting irrationally because of his obligation as a family friend.

"What's wrong with you? It's not like you're actually my Dad!"

" _Just pack up your things and go home."_ Cheng then turned to the new kid and angrily yelled " _I said Leave It!"_ I wanted to tell him to leave the new kid out of this, but I bit my tongue as I packed up my violin and decided that I didn't want to deal with anymore of his nonsense today.

Unfortunately, as I turned around to get ready to leave, I caught Cheng roughly pushing the new kid down, and my heart sank because I knew a fight was about to ensue.

"Stop! He didn't do anything wrong!" But it was no use. To my horror, the new kid got up and balled his fists in a fighting stance, and before I could try to run to him to tell him to just drop it, two of Cheng's friends in our class whom I knew to be Liang and Zhuang quickly stepped out and blocked me from trying to defuse the situation.

" _Look Cheng! He's getting up! He wants to fight!"_ Zhuang cried in a tone that was far too excited to be normal.

" _Let's go! Let's go! Fight! Fight!"_

And then the next thing I remember was watching helplessly as the new kid charged straight at Cheng and end up flat on his back.

I looked to Liang, knowing him to be the most rational and level-headed of the group, and pleaded with him:

" _Let me go!"_ But he avoided eye contact with me, and silently continued to hold me back. Unfortunately, his loyalty to Cheng was almost as strong as Cheng's own twisted one to me.

The fight continued to ensue, and as the new kid began to take a beating that was far too severe for even an actual bully to deserve, Liang's hold against me began to weaken. I can't say whether it was simply a moment of lapse in his attention, or if perhaps he also started to realize that Cheng was going way too far. Regardless, I quickly dashed out of his grasp and pulled Cheng off of the new kid.

" _That's enough! Stop fighting!"_

Cheng silently glared at me, but thankfully consented as he quickly walked away and gestured for his little crew to go with him. I wanted so badly to give him a piece of my mind and ask him what in god's name he was thinking, but I instead turned to the new kid to try to assess the damage.

"Are you ok? Let me see."

" _Just leave me alone!"_

And again I felt helpless as I could do nothing but grant him at least that pitiful wish, walking slowly back to the bench to collect my violin and begin my dreadful walk home.


End file.
